The Swedish TV show World of Science’s documentary about Andrea Rossi made some interesting revelations about the ecat inventor and his work and stirred up a lot of controversy.

The program’s reporter Linus Brohult travelled to Italy to interview Rossi and view his ecat low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) technology. Like recent US documentary the Beleivers the World of Science features a clip from the 1997 film The Saint which featured a cold fusion reactor as a plot device. The documentary shows pictures of Martin Fleischman and Stanley Pons back in 1989.

Andrea Rossi is described as an engineer and shown in a coffee shop. The documentary mentions Rossi’s attempts to make biodiesel fuel from garbage in the 1980s. It doesn’t mention the criminal charges filed against Rossi over that effort.

The documentary shows Rossi’s prototype factory in the town of Ferrara outside Bologna. It doesn’t show a new ecat facility as some bloggers have claimed instead it seems to show the same Leonardo Corporation facility that we’ve seen in earlier Rossi videos.

It also has some animation of the ecat that shows the device is heated by a built in electric radiator. The ecat is shown operating and Rossi explains it’s workings. Rossi told Brohult that the reactor was still hot several hours after it had been turned off which indicates a reaction had occurred.

The inside of Rossi’s one megawatt ecat unit was also shown. Rossi explained that the unit contains 100 one kilowatt ecat reactors and could generate as much electricity as a large wind turbine. It should be pointed out here that Rossi himself has admitted he hasn’t been able to generate enough steam with the ecat to generate electricity.

Greek physicist and diplomat Christos Stremmenos is also shown. Stremmenos explains that the technology was developed by Italian physicists before Rossi took over. The physicists presumably include Sergio Focardi whose name is mentioned.

Brohult to his credit does talk to some skeptics including Peter Ekstrom of Lund University who thinks that Rossi’s device would produce deadly gamma radiation if it were for real. Brohult even travelled to Sweden’s Lund University to talk to physicists that are skeptical of ecat. Another scientist named Goran Nybon demonstrated how an electric kettle could be used to create the illusion of generating excess heat. Nybon claimed that ecat is an illusion.

Some Rossi skeptics including Steven B. Krivit of the New Energy Times have alleged that this is what Rossi has done. It should be noted here that there is no evidence to back Krivit’s allegations up they are simply his speculation. The scientists at Lund interviewed by Brohult share Krivit’s view. It should be noted that those physicists have not actually examined the ecat so their claims are also speculation.

All in all in the documentary seems like a balanced effort that does a good job of showing both sides of the debate. The New Energy Times allegations that Brohult and World of Science were tricked or fooled by Rossi don’t hold water. The journalists are apparently very skeptical of Rossi and his claims and cold fusion in general. They are willing to interview critics and show their views.

Brohult also interviewed Hanno Essen a Swedish physicist who along with reporter Mats Lewan and physicist Sven Kullander examined the ecat and found that it worked. Kullander and Lewan are also interviewed. Essen in particular was prepared to go on Swedish TV and state that ecat generated 10 times the energy that was fed into it.

Essen said the ecat was producing a new and unknown nuclear reaction. He was unable to provide a satisfactory explanation.

Magnus Holm of Hydro Fusion was interviewed as well. Holm made a number of claims including one that a container the size of a soda bottle could power a car for its entire life time using LENR fuel. Footage of Joseph Zawodny’s youtube video promoting NASA’s cold fusion work is shown.

At the end of the day the documentary doesn’t tell us that much but it doesn’t promote Rossi or his work only takes note of them. World of Science is to be commended for being fair and open on the subject. Hopefully major American and British media will take note of it and do something similar. Such as a real follow up to Scott Pelley’s classic 2009 cold fusion piece for 60 Minutes. That would be a great way to start the New Year.

Absolutely true but we don’t have a working LENR device that generates power yet. I would really like to see one rather than the claims. I agree with you on the potential but to paraphrase a line from the Maltese Falcon: one gram of real energy is worth a ton of imaginary energy. Claims of potential do not add up to proof instead they point to an intriguing area of science and technology we should be exploring.